Help with home made substrate for aquatic plants

I

issis

Registered Member
Apr 27, 2011
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Hi,

Presently I have a 22 gallon tank with plain grave(3-4mm) as substrate. I pump in CO2 using a DIY yeast method. I get about 5-6 bubbles every 5 seconds. I have amazon swords and Hygrophila corymbosa, planning to have Hairgrass and HC "cuba" as well.

As observed the substrate is not sufficient in providing the plants with enough nutrition. The swords are all yellow and brittle at the tips, suggesting a deficiency of iron (or sulphur?).

So, I've decided to change the substrate as a whole. Since the well known substrates such as ADA, aquasoil etc are not available in my region, I'm planning on creating my own as follows:

  1. I've got some garden soil rich in humus and red soil. I plan to mix the two and wash the mixture by keeping it in a bucket filled with water up-to 2-3 inches above the soil surface, let it soak for 1 day and rinse it, repeating this step 4-5 times.
  2. Place this mixture at the bottom layer in the tank, having a height of 2 inches, and top it up with gravel of size 2-3mm for a height of 1 inch.
  3. I plan to dose the tank twice a week with a weak solution of Epsom salt, potassium sulfate and salt peter, about 2-3 teaspoons.
  4. Regular 30% water changes once a week.

My questions are:
Will this substrate with regular dosing of the fertilizer solution keep my plants healthy(I provide sufficient lighting as well)?
Since I plan to grow HC (I will try the DSM) gravel may not be a good option for the top layer. But if I use the garden soil-red soil mixture alone, won't it cloud the water when the tank is filled up, assuming HC has carpeted most of the tank area?

Thanks!
 
While a new substrate could be a good idea, I don't know that it's necessary. Try dosing with a micro-nutrient solution first (either flourish or CSM+B). You can also use regular osmocote granules for a root fertilizer. This may make a large amount of difference.

I use playsand for a substrate, treat roots with osmocote, dose with compressed CO2, dose with CSM+B regularly and then supplement with either flourish Iron (iron chelate) if necessary and Potassium mono phosphate. All of these are available in dry form at several outlets. I bought mine from aquariumfertilizer.com and it was about a 10th the price of buying bottled fertilizers.

As for your plan for a substrate, it sounds like it could work, I haven't tried garden soil before though. The big thing I would worry about is making sure that there's no gas buildup.
 
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Do you use only sand for substrate and place the osmocote granules near the roots, buried under the sand? And as for Potassium mono phosphate, do you make a solution and dose it?
 
I just put the granules under the sand next to the roots. For the Potassium I make a solution although there are a lot of folks that have just figured out how much to add and put the dry ferts directly in. I'm not quite that brave though.

As for figuring out what you might need to add, there's a fairly description of various nutrient deficiencies at http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_cwbt2D65i...JcdLSqSf4/s1600-h/3591814040_bc03c264a5_o.jpg

You may wish to invest in an iron test kit if you decide to go with dosing iron into the water column though, too much and you could end up with an overdose or at the very least a Brush algae outbreak. There's also a useful fertilizer calculater at http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/fertilator.php that is set up to handle estimative index fertilizing, you do need to set up a free account with Aquatic Plant Central to access it though.
 
i would be concerned about the organics breaking down also. If you aren't concerned with getting stank tank syndrome (tm) then roll with it.

It looks like you are going the mineralized topsoil method, or something close to it. Consider adding potash and dolomite to the bottom of the the tank before adding the soil, and add some red pottery clay at about 1/4lb per sq foot of tank area.

If you go this route you may not have to dose at all.
 
Having tried it, I must recommend against attempting to "rinse" dirt. What after all are you trying to rinse out? How are you going to strain it to remove the offending particles? It's DIRT. :)

Once that is overcome you still have the problem that you had better get your plantings right the first time, because trying to move anything, even with a gravel layer on top, will release a massive cloud of gunk into the water column any time you pull out a plant. And it takes a very long time to settle; running the filter doesn't help as it just keeps it swirling around and, oh yeah, leaves your filter full of dirt.

If "regular" type substrate is unavailable even by online/mail order (I like aquariumplants.com stuff even though the one advertised as "black" isn't very, it's more brownish-gray) (and did I mention they have FREE SHIPPING?? amazing, but true) I would strongly recommend sand. It has its own challenges--any substrate does--but mucking up the water isn't one of them. Unless you get stuff so fine it is more like silt, then it has the Dirt problem. But any reasonably-sized grit will do fine. Sandblasting sand is good if you want super-black and often available at stores oriented to the farming business.

best wishes, and oh yeah welcome to AC. :)
 
Well, when I said rinse, I meant to leave the soil in water for 1 day and decant/remove the water at the top using a tumbler/cup.

That way I can remove all the particles that float. I also read that this will remove the extra minerals that would contribute to heavy algae growth and make the soil better suited for being submerged under water, since topsoil is never exposed to that kind of situation.

I'll top-up the soil with sand/gravel also try the suggestions given by sorberj and jetajockey. Let's see what I end up with.

One more question. The water in my region is not crystal clear, it's a bit cloudy. I guess its because of the hardness. I've seen aquariums with water so crystal clear. How do they achieve that? Would using alum help?

Thanks guys, I'm really getting to know these stuffs much better!
 
Clarity of the water in the aquarium depends on a lot of things, including filtration, bioload, substrate, and relative age of the tank. If you're on well water and the water coming out of your tap is cloudy, you may wish to test it. If it's coming from a municipal water supply, and it remains cloudy after a couple of minutes, you may want to up your filtration. One of the best filters I've seen for clearing water is the Magnum 350 with a micron polishing cartridge in it.
 
I also have trouble with plants getting their nutrients. I'm thinking of those root tabs. I dose flourish weekly.
 
There is a proven way to do a 1/2" to 1" soil substrate with a 2" cap of whatever. Read this:

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...-mineralized-soil-substrate-aaron-talbot.html

I have 6 tanks set up with mineralized soil, 5g to 75g. For the smaller tanks I sift the soil first, then boil the soil for 30 mins, let it cool, then follow Aaron's plan (clay, domolite, potash, border, etc). For larger tanks I take the time and mineralize the soil, basically following Aaron's method exactly. Here is a pic of my 75g, still a work in progress...This tank is over a year old, I have pressurized co2, T5HO lighting, dose PPS Pro (macros) and excel daily.

DSC_0005.jpg

DSC_0005.jpg
 
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